Mercedes Benz Quality
Mercedes-Benz vehicles historically have had a focus on high quality and state of the art engineering. The products of Daimler-Benz have been known for the introduction of advanced technologies to automobiles—notably fuel injection and anti-lock braking systems, amongst many others.
As a result they have been expensive and made in lower volumes compared to less expensive automobiles. The company has carefully cultivated an image of superior engineering, quality, and service. The automobiles often are the vehicle of choice for the rich and famous.
The 1997 A-Class supermini introduced a Mercedes-Benz model with a new cost saving approach to quality and construction. The A-Class was criticised for this, but got away with it due to its class positioning. The 1998, W220 Mercedes-Benz S-Class employed this same construction approach. From the day it was launched, the W220 was severely criticised for its average quality and build, a trait unheard of in previous S-Class.
The influential United States magazine Consumer Reports now lists Mercedes-Benz vehicles as having reliability much worse than average and by 2006 recommended its readers avoid them not only as new cars, but as used cars as well. Recently, an active brake system installed in over 600,000 cars has been recalled to fix potential problems. In recent years the brand's former record and reputation—for sterling reliability—has been called into question when it was recently ranked rather low in consumer surveys. In one J. D. Powers and associates reliability survey, it was ranked below Jaguar Cars, a company historically associated with notorious unreliability, but which has, recently under Ford's guidance, become one of the most reliable companies in the world, with its XJ model coming in first place in the 2003 British car customer satisfaction survey (Top Gear). In stark contrast, the W163 Mercedes-Benz ML had an abysmal showing, in 2004 coming last, as the worst car on sale in the same survey. However, the 2006 W164 ML-Class has been universally recognised in the motoring world as a vast improvement in quality and engineering compared to the previous model.
To address the problem, Daimler-Chrysler has invested heavily in recent years to stem the problem. Until recently many still felt that the company had a long way to go to return to its former glory. In reaction the Mercedes-Benz W221 S-Class of 2006 finally showed that Mercedes-Benz is still the final name in the executive super saloon market. The new flagship model shows a return to the old days of uncompromised and unsurpassable build quality combined with state of the art technology. After only a few months on the market, the car had won numerous prestigious awards[1] naming it the best car in its class, and being that this is the 'top class' available, some have even gone so far as to call it 'the best car in the world, unofficially of course' (WhatCar). A review by Fifth Gear said, "Possibly the most complete luxury saloon in the world—makes even its accomplished rivals appear crude by comparison."[2] The worries of reliability problems with this model have also been quashed as the W221 S-Class has now been shown to be very reliable. (comparable with Mercedes-Benz cars of old)[3]. The AMG models (S63 & S65) are also blisteringly fast with 0-62mph (0-100k/h)(acceleration) times that would embarrass most purpose built super cars. Many now hope that the rest of the Mercedes-Benz range will inherit this fastidious attention to detail and rock solid reliability—that gave Mercedes-Benz its prestigious name in the first place. (caranddriver.com review) |
